Method of carrying and feeding sheets to the cold rolls of sheet and tin plate mills



Dec 7 1926c 1,609,803

F. L. ESTEP ET AL METHOD OF CARRYING AND FEEDING SHEETS TO THE COLD ROLLS OF SHEET AND TIN PLATE MILLS Filed Nov. 50, 1923 Patented Dec, 7, 1926..

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

FRANK L. ESTEP. OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND JOHN W. BELL. OF MINNEAPGLEE MINNESOTA.

METHOD OF CARRYING AND FEEDING SHEETS TO THE GOLD ROLLS F SHEET .fir ffi TIN PLATE MILLS.

Application filed November 30, 1923. Serial No. 677,746.

This invention relates to the cold rolling of tin plate and is directed to the provision of certain improvements whereby the output of a set of cold rolls is increased and as a 6 consequence the power consumption, the

labor cost and the capital investment incident to the cold rolling of tin plate are decreased.

Prior to this invention it has been the established practice -for many years and is now the practice in the largest and best equipped tin plate mills, to introduce tin plates to the first of a series of stands of cold rolls manually, the operator picking the plates up successively and introducing the edge of each plate between the fiist pair of rolls. Of course care must be observed in so feeding the plates to the rolls; for instance, the rear edge of one plate must pass through the rolls beforeithe forward edge of the next succeeding plate is introduced.

\Ve have discovered that tlxis practice which. as stated above, has been the accepted and established practice in the best plate mills for many years past, can be substantiallyimproved so as to get substantially greater results or to produce the same results with less labor and a less investment in apparatus, by the simple expedient of employing in connection with the cold rolls a simple form of belt conveyor upon which the plates may be placed successively by hand and by which they would be carried to the rolls and introduced between theln one after another.

In accordance with this practice, just as in connection with the prior established practice. the plates are picked up one after another by hand and placed in *position by the operator by hand, but when the operation involves placing the sheets upon the conveyor belt in positions thereon set by suitable projections on the conveyor surface and the belt carries the plates to the cold rolls, the rate at which the plates are fed to the rolls is substantially greater than in the case where the manual operation is one of picking up the plates successively and introducing their forward edgesbetween the rolls.

The plates may be more readily positioned upon the belt, the operator may release his hold on the plate quicker, and regular operis preferably provided with an axle 11 and ation is insured by having-projections on the surface of the conveyor which indicate the positions at which the plates are to be placed thereon with a suflicient'an'iount of space and no more between the rear edge of one plate and the forward edge of the next succeeding plate.

Our inventioi, therefore, involves the combination with the cold rolls of a tin plate mill, of a power driven endless conveyor having projections spaced at regnlar intervals along its conveying'surface, arranged in cooperative relation to the rolls so-tha't plates placed upon the conveying surface of the. conveyor are carried successively to and introduced between the rolls, whereby a substantially increased production is obtained from a stand or a series of stands of cold rolls from the manual oper: ation of placing the plates upon the con veyor and allowing the conveyor to intro duce them between the rolls as compared with the manual operation of introducing the plates successively between the rolls. And further the invention involves the method of continuously feeding the cold rolls of a tin plate mill afmaximum capacity by the use of an endless conveyor such as that above described,.and guiding the sheets to different parts of the rolls to equalize the wear on the rolls.

An embodiment of the invention is illus trated in the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view; Fig. 2 is a side view and Fig. 3 is a section on line 33 of Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the conveyor consists of a built-up frame 1, which supports an endless sheet carrier 2. The frame supports ahead roller 3, driven by suitable belt or chain and sprocket connection 4 from a suitable source of power, such as motor 5, carried on the. frame 1. Supported on the frame 1 are also tail roller 6, idler rollers, 7, and adjustable tension rollers 8, overf which the endless belt sheet carrier 2 moves. 100 The sheet carrier 2 has a series of pins 9 on its carrier side for spacing sheets, such as 10, placed on the carrier. The frame 1 g a pair wheels 12, thus permitting the en- 5 tire apparatus to be moved about readily and easily. The head of the conveyor is preferably provided with a pair of. guides lll are

the traveling,

pins

13, to direct the sheets from the conveyor into the cold rolls. In order that the sheets may he made to enter the rolls at different points along the length of the rolls and thus prevent grooving'of the rolls 16, the entire apparatus may be shifted, or the guides 13 m y be mounted for movement ba clr. and forth at right angles to the travel of the conveyor;

din apparatus of this type may be placed in front of the entering stand of cold rolls ll. and may be braced and held in the dc sired position by means of suitable blocks or by other means. In utilizing this apparatus, after the discharge end of the conveyor has been properly located with respect to the cold rolls, the carrier 2 is set in motion by starting the motor It is only v to place sheets, such as 10, upon .arrier between the spacing and they will be automatically carthe cold rolls. The carrier is prefera -Jly ot suilifient length to permit the placing of sheets thereon at and to permit several piles of sheets, such as 18, to he placed alongside of the carrier. 'lhc :u'rier may he fed 'from one or more poi; either hy hand or by other electrical, mes iical or pneumatic power, or by any The length of coiuhiuatlon of these means. the carrier and the method of feeding thereto will, tlicic'tm'c, vary according to local.

The spacing pins coiuii'iiiour'; encountered.

"sluable aid in increasing the number hccis fed. These pins designate arbipaces ou the carrier of suillcient size torriceivc the sheets to be fed, leaving the she "s prop ,ly paced from each other for the l'l'lOSt etiicieiu, COI'lt'lmlOUS feeding to the cold rolls.

ills will he apparent from the above dese 'otion, the conveyor-i .Jith the spacing pins o guides provides means for continuously supplying the cold rolls of sheet. and tin plate mills with l and this ap paratus obtains a greats creased output compared u'ithlhe ordinary cold roll operaties. and a dec sed cost per ton for labor, power and maintenance. tltherwise stated, hy umaziiigxifu apparatus of this character, a given total output is obtained with a several places,

smaller number of cold mills and therefore a less cost of plant.

What we claim is 1. The method of feeding sheet metal to cold rolls of tin" mills and the like which comprises feeding a plurality of sheets edge to edge in substantially equally spaced positions in front of the cold rolls from more than one station and advancing the sheets together and at the same speed while maintaining them in substantially spaced relation to one another to cause them to engage {he rolls successively and to be treated there- 2. The method of feeding sheet metal to cold rolls of tin mills and the like which comprises feeding a plurality of sheets edge to edge in substantially equally spaced positions in front of the cold rolls from more than one station and, advancing and guiding the sheets together'und at; the same speed in a direction toward the center of the rolls While maintaining them in spaced relation toone another, and changing the direction of travel oi the sheets adjacent to the rolls for delivering the same at desired points along the length of the rolls.

The method of feeding sheet metal to cold rolls which comprises feeding individual sheets from a plurality of sources onto an endless conveyor in such a way as to form on said conveyor a continuous series of regularly spaced sheets, and advancing said conveyor towards the cold rolls at such constant speed that'the cold rolls are fed at maximum capacity.

,4. Themethod of feeding sheet metal to cold rolls at maximunrspeed which comprises feeding individual sheets from a plurality of sources into a series of regularly spaced, approximately aligned individual sheets, continuously advancing said series at constant speed to feed the rolls, and replenishing the series as the sheets are passed through the rolls.

This specification signed this 24th day of Z November, 1923.

FRANK L. ESTER This specification signed this 31st. day of 

